Host
by SoulMistress12
Summary: "Around and around and around you go..." Yami no Bakura will never be truly gone, no matter how much Ryou wishes it to be so.
1. Madness Speaks With Invisible Tongues

**Summary: **_Around and around and around you go..._ Yami no Bakura will never be truly gone, no matter how much Ryou wishes it to be so.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned YuGiOh, you wouldn't recognize it.

* * *

_Around and around and around we go..._

"It's not much, but..."  
_You see... I'm not going anywhere..._

"Yeah, do you like it?"  
_I don't care how much you want me gone._

"Uh... You okay?"  
_You nod your head, smile. That's right. Ignore me. See if I care..._

"I'm fine."

_Like hell you are._

"Just a bit distracted, you know how it is..."  
_Sorry - did I hear that right? Am I _distracting _you?  
_"It's okay -"  
_It will never be okay. Your friend is stupid, host._

"Thanks -"

_Can you pay attention now?_

"What - that -"  
_Around and around and around you go._

"W - stop - ambulance!"

_To the floor and low, low, low..._

"Scre- hel - fl-"

_Cry and rage and fight the dark_

"WH - MEA - GON?"

_The arrow flies and hits its mark..._

!

_It pierces your skin, so sharp, sharp, sharp..._

...

_Heehee._

* * *

Stay tuned for the full tale :L


	2. A Tango Meant for One

A/N:And here's chapter two! I'm thinking that there'll be three, maybe four chapters in all. So remember to keep reading! Please enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I owned YuGiOh, all the characters would be forced to play their own game correctly. (mind=blown)

* * *

...

It was moving again.  
_It, hmm?_

It, not he. Ryou _refused _to refer to that - that _thing _as he. Because if it was a he, then it was a person. If it was a person, then it existed.

Nightmares are _its_.

This was just a nightmare.

There was no laughter echoing in his mind as he repeated the words, over and over again. Nobody was mocking him for his feeble mindedness. And if someone was, it was just his conscience.

That brought the laughter to an abrupt halt, but Ryou didn't care because it was never there in the first place.  
_Me? As a conscience? Hah..._

"Don't refer to yourself as 'I'," he snapped, cheeks turning red as he broke his own game. "You don't... you're not..."

_So we're talking to ourselves now, are we~?  
_

Stiffening, the teen rolled over in his bed to stare up at the ceiling once more. He _hated _these 'talks', he _hated _them. Every single night, it would always be up and moving around like some nocturnal beast, and it would always wake him up on purpose, just to mock him. Just to _remind _him. Just so it could tango, play and win at a game that Ryou only designed for one.

"I'm going to sleep now."

_One day you'll be forced to acknowledge me, and you will become just as insane as I am.  
__You _will_._

His eyes squished shut. Its parting words were always the same. That means it's just a bad recording, right? Something that it must have said when "It" still existed.

So when it added on to its forboding statement and shattered the perfect stillness a mere two minutes later, it was perfectly understandable for Ryou to bolt straight upwards in bed, hands over his heart and mouth open in a silent scream.

_(And that day is today.)_

Lilting, gleeful, whispered words. _Frozen _words, words he never wanted to hear, not from someone -  
_Someone?_ _I'm winning already, it would seem..._

Still uncomprehending, wide brown eyes snapped to the alarm clock resting on his bedside table.

_12:00_.  
Cool red numbers flashed gently, pressing long and unassuming fingers up against the suffocating darkness.

**_12:00._**

_Good morning, yadonushi ~  
__It's the last one you'll ever have._

* * *

A/N: Tell me how I did?


	3. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Special Notice: OMG. Eleven reviews, eight favorites and six follows. I want to glomp you all.

_"You broke my ribcage! Bastard!"_

... Okay. No glomping.  
DX

* * *

...

...

_Good morning, yadonushi ~  
It's the last one you'll ever have._

The second those words had ghosted through lips that _weren't_, _couldn't _be there, Ryou had slammed the top of his digital clock so hard it broke, a single crack racing down the offending object's display, right between the two digits that made up the 12.

_You're not giving yourself much time, are you?  
_

An icy chill ran down his back. If Ryou wanted to see another day, he knew that he had to best it as its own game.

_You're admitting I exist, you know._

- he had to beat this puzzle that someone _who was not in his own head _had laid out for him.

_Don't blatantly deny facts like that. It's sloppy._

Okay. It was okay. He had done this before. What just happened?  
He broke the clock. Right. Then, something - his intuition. Yes. His intuition -

_I suppose I _am _the only intuition you'll ever have ~  
Pathetic._

- had told him that he had done something wrong, cut himself short. What could that mean? Ryou searched his own head and drew a blank.

He had no idea.  
_  
Hah! You make this too easy!_

No. No, it wouldn't be. He just had to think about it as if it were one of his RPGs. A trap in Monster World.

Slowly, he slipped his toocoldcoldcold legs off of the bed and into dull blue slippers.

Words and blood alike pounded in his head, competing for space. Pain blossomed around his temples and he knew he would have a killer headache once all this adrenaline wore off. Slowly, he made his way to the bathroom that was adjacent to his room, fumbling for the lightswitch.

He hit it ungracefully as his hands shot to his eyes, rubbing them as the white light stung at the backs of his eyelids because that all-too familiar burning sensation couldn't be tears. They weren't. He couldn't cry, there was no reason to cry, nobody was there and he would be fine, it was paranoia, a dream, something, anything, oh God let it be anything but what he couldn't doesn't wouldn't think it was because he _couldn't live with that THING anymore-!_

The albino sank to the floor, banging his back against the metal handles of a cabinet as he curled up on himself. Just to spite him, the headache he knew would be coming on exploded in full force, drawing a loud and ungainly moan from the victim.

_Because that's what you are. It's all you'll ever be. A pawn, a victim, somone I can use._

No-!

But he couldn't argue anymore. Not this early, not with this headache, not in this painful light and not while crying.

_Heheheh..._

(The voice that didn't belong to anyone but himself giggled like a naughty schoolboy who had made a classmate break down with just a few words.)

Because that's what just happened, wasn't it?

A few snide comments and a clock that _Ryou himself _had broken, and suddenly he was a mess. A now sobbing, broken mess, splayed out against the walls of a sanitary, soulless bathroom, alone and hurting, _hurtingsobadly._

Hurting so badly he didn't react when an invisible hand brushed against his hair, and he wouldn't have _anyway_, because it was just a trick of his mind that he could make stop whenever he wanted.

The comforting strokes stopped the moment he had the audacity to think such a thing, the appendange deciding to instead fist in the silky locks and yank cruelly.  
A particularily extreme cry was drawn from Ryou and he fell forward, face smearing against the ice-cold tiles.

_Come on, make me stop!_

"I- I!"

Another twist, another pull.

"I - AH! - ah, ah, stop that! -" A howl.

_Make me!_

Ryou squeezed his eyes shut tighter, not daring to look, in case he was _hallucinating, _as well.

"I- I c-c-an't!"

His mind froze in a liquid that felt like hysteria.

"I can't, I can't, I can't, I CAN'T! I CAN'T I CAN'T WHY CAN'T I? _WHY CAN'T I?_"

Vaguely, a part of him knew that he was screaming and that he should stop, but the rest of him, the numb, traumatized part, didn't care.

And with that, it was over. He knew it was over. He had spoken to Bakura. Admitted that the Yami existed and that he had no control over it. He knew all of this, and the knowledge was excruciating.

But what Ryou didn't know was that he was only half right.

It was over, yes, but it was more than just that.

It was game on.

_Ready or not, here I come~!_


	4. Bombs and Clocks Sound The Same To Me

A/N: Bleh, me no like this chapter. D: Review anyway?  
Disclaimer: "This is a fanfic that is proud to have been written... IN AMERICA." - Bandit Keith, America's most obnoxious patriot since July 4th, 1776.

Also, I've altered the deal. There will now be six chapters. I have it all mapped out. So pray that I do not alter it furthe- /murdered

* * *

He awoke the next morning to a steady beeping.

Ryou's heavy eyelids snapped apart with a sudden sense of urgency as he leapt to his feet, clutching at his forehead (as if that'd help). He whipped around, only to pause, morbidly fascinated, when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

Hair sticking up every which way and spiked oddly. Eyes wild and frightened like a cornered rabbit's. Tinged-red cheeks littered with drying tear tracks. He was - he was the perfect picture of -

_Insanity ~ insanity ~ that's what you look like!_

Completely belying his fanatical breakdown of yesterday, the only reaction was a low moan that ghosted between lips that were clenched far too tightly for that sort of thing. It had never been this bad. Never, ever, _ever _been this bad. What had he done to set his Yami back on the warpath?

_I never left it._

"I think I noticed," he murmured, so softly he wondered if he had even said it.

(the laughter in his head told him that he had.)

Luckily, Ryou had the insistant beeping of his cell phone to distract him, otherwise, he might have never left the bathroom. Absently wondering when he had fell asleep in the first place, he rubbed blearily at his eyes before stepping back into his own room.

He also wanted to say that it had felt good to break down. That now he was okay again, and could try to push Bakura back into the deepest recesses of his mind. But he couldn't, because it didn't. It had felt like everything else. Hell.

_You know nothing of Hell ~ but it's rather flattering that you think that I'm so wonderful at raising it._

Not acknowledging the prompt with anything more than the odd leftover shudder, Ryou hit 'answer', now trying to think of someone who would be so persistant as to stay on the line as long as they had.

(Nobody came to mind, and that was kind of depressing.)

"Hel-"

The words were barely out of Ryou's mouth before the overenthusiastic reply was shoved through the phone and down his ear.

"Oh hi Ryou I was wondering if you were ever going to pick up because everytime I call nobody answers and so I was thinking that maybe you weren't up for visitors and that just made me even more worried, and, uh, anyway I was going to ask you something now that you finally picked up which is a relief because - "

Normally, a shy and polite guy like the one currently being subjected to this torture would have let the rambler finish before awkwardly waving aside mumbled apologies, but under the circumstances, the albino figured that he could excuse himself just this once.

"Uh..."

He mentally slapped himself. Very suave, very cool, he thought bitterly as he stalked across his room to sit on his bed.

"Oh! Sorry," came the embarassed reply, and Ryou finally got himself together enough to note that it was indeed Yugi on the other end.

Of course. Who else would bother?

"It's me, Yugi," the voice continued rather unnecessarily.

"I figured," Ryou muttered, reazling too late that this would probably further distress the other.

"Eh? Ryou? What's wrong?"

_Bah. He says it like he actually cares._

Said teenager vaguely remembered the first time someone had asked him a question whose answer was 'Bakura'or some variation thereof. He had been nervous, panicky, and plain _weird _about it, because he didn't know how to lie. Angels don't lie. Good people don't lie.

Now it came naturally.

"Nothing," he answered, not too quick and not too slow. (Tempo.) Letting his eyes fall shut, he continued.

"A bit tired, is all." (And a plausible reason.) One and one is two. There was no room for doubt.

_There's always room for doubt ~ Haha ~_

"Didn't sleep well last night?"

A more pronounced understatement had never existed.

"No," Ryou answered, this time proud to say that he hadn't had to lie.

"Ah."  
There was an awkward pause.

"Er... Yeah. So I was wondering how you were holding up now that Ba- I mean... the entire Millennium Items thing is gone - I mean. Over. Wow, I'm not doing well at all," Yugi laughed.

Ryou cringed regardless.

"Well, that was very nice of you. Just fine, thanks."

Please hang up please hang up please please please please please -

"Have you been lonely, though? I don't see you around anymore, and I asked the others and they haven't seen you either -"

"You don't have to group me in with the others, you know... although it is nice, you and I both know that I'm not exactly Mr. Popular."

...

Wisely, Yugi ignored this comment and continued. "... To get to the point, could I come over? Just for a bit? To see how you're doing. Oh, and to talk."

To make sure I'm not suicidal, yeah, sure, he longed to say. But he didn't need homicidal spirits in his head to let him know that he hadn't the guts.

"... Of course. One o'clock would be great."

There was a muffled sound of surprise, startling Ryou.

"Is there... something wrong with that time?" Cautious, nervous. A 'did I miss something?' kind of voice.

_And there it is-!_ It was almost a delighted shout.

"No, but isn't that kind of soon?... That's only in ten minutes."

Eyes nearly popping out of his skull, Ryou instinctively glanced towards the spot where his alarm clock used to stand proudly before thanking the gods that the broken thing was still face-down, making him unable to see the cracked display screen and frozen red numbers.

(Gah, why is everything red?)

_Because red is beautiful._

Figuring he'd just have to take the other's word for it (on both counts), he cleared his throat to buy time before speaking. "Well, I have nothing to do, as you said... unless you have something else?"

"No, that's okay. I'll be right over."

_Beep._

Maybe it was rude, maybe it was uncalled for, but Ryou figured that his sudden hang-up would just be filed underneath 'depression'.

"Nothing else for it," he said, mainly to himself. "Better get presentable."

XXX

The first thing, straight off the bat, that Ryou had noticed that it was, indeed, 12:50. Meaning he had slept until about 12:45.

Somehow 'I needed it' didn't seem to work in this case. He could already feel a migraine coming on.

_That's hilarious. You're going to leave this world with a headache._

"Who says I'm going to be leaving?"

_I do ~ Unless you feel like you can contest that?_

A warning. A challenge. A - a game.

And suddenly, he sat bolt upright. A game. He had been thinking about that earlier -! Okay. Okay. About the numbers, 12:00, broken between the one and the two on his alarm clock.

"..."

It _was _like his Monster World traps. So he could think about it like that. In Monster World, specific types of puzzles had specific sets of rules. What kind of puzzle was this?

The answer came to him immediately. Numbers. This challenge was a number puzzle. That meant that all variations of the numbers affected the answer. What variations were there?

A crack.

So including the crack as part of the answer, the clock now read:  
_1/2:00_

1:00 to 2:00.

He could feel his heart slamming against his chest once again. Hopefully today would be the last time, and _notnotnot _for the reason Bakura predicted, that it would ever have the need to get so agitated.

In ten minutes, it would be 1:00. Then he would have -

_One hour._

This time, it really was Ryou who had made the horrified realization.

One hour? That was - it?

_An hour to escape eternity. Amn't I ever so generous?_


	5. One Turn Knockout

A/N: Uh... sorry? -,- Writer's block and too many horror games. _Amnesia _anybody?  
/shot multiple times for taking so goddamn long to update

Disclaimer: I is dead. Thus I cannot own anything anymore. D:

* * *

"I am Ryou Bakura and I have dealt with worse than this."

It hadn't always been his mantra, but when you start getting posessed by a proverbial demon who uses your own hands to murder your own friends, it actually becomes applicable in most cases and therefore very helpful.

So Ryou used it now, the familiar words rolling off his tongue until they meant nothing to him anymore, and it had completely annulled his panic. Because he _can't _panic; if he panics he loses. And he doesn't have to panic; he is Ryou Bakura and he has dealt with worse. And Ryou Bakura welcomed the return of his rational thought with open arms.

Strategy. Time for strategy. First step - timetables. He could work timetables. Obviously he has an hour to defeat the plan. And ten minutes to put his own counterplan in motion before Yugi showed up and got suspicious. For some reason he didn't want the overly-cheerful hikari to interfere with this strange battle he was fighting.

But before he worried about Yugi messing up things, he needed to worry about what, exactly, he was worried Yugi would mess up. In other words - _what was he going to do?_

He knew what he _wasn't _going to do. Sit down, mope until Yugi arrived, pretend like nothing was wrong, and attempt to make that one hour the best one of his life before... whatever Bakura had planned for him. The end, close the book, and go back to bed.

Well. He certainly had 'what not to do in this case' perfected already. Unfortunately what _to _actually do was going to be just a bit harder.

_And this is why you're not going to make it out of this. You're becoming distracted._

Why did Bakura sound like he _wanted _Ryou to escape?

_Why do _you_ sound like you expect _me_ to answer?_

Then Ryou would have to figure it out for himself. He'd already made one breakthrough, and no plan was flawless, so he could thwart this one, with a little luc- Okay, best not to mention luck. Nontheless. He could still win.

_You can't win a game if you don't know how it's being played._

But he did know how it was being played - at least, he knew a little. How a clock could have anything to do with the real world? That, Ryou would never find out, but he could use it as a constant. Because if _one _clock had everything to do with him, wouldn't the same properties apply to every clock within a certain radius? Like... his house? After all, Bakura couldn't have been sure exactly what he would break, or how. He just knew it would happen _eventually_.

(Why he would leave the timing up to Ryou was easily explained: It's not a game if your opponent doesn't have any input.)

"If I broke one clock..." the albino said slowly to himself, "And it affected the _timing _of the plot... maybe breaking a _different _clock will alter the timing? Perhaps postpone it?"

But postponing wasn't what he wanted, wasn't good enough. He wanted to stop the timer -

Stop the timer!

The teen sat bolt upright in his chair, almost knocking it back in his haste to get the words out. And he proceded to spit his magic formula out as if it was blazing against the insides of his mouth.

"If I break one clock and it changes time, if I break them all there will _be _no time left to change! If all the clocks are stopped then the time in this game will too!"

For a single moment, Ryou's world was perfect. He was alive, well, nightmare-less and beautiful. There were angel choirs singing in the background and there was a million-watt smile on his face.

(And then the doorbell rung loudly.)

Reality crashed down onto his shoulders once more.

That'd be Yugi at the door. He'd have to work fast. Yugi would come in, they would talk, and he would take their chat upstairs. When he went back down to get snacks or something, he'd break his stove's timer. Then he'd shut off his computer's clock and take the batteries out of the two electric clocks he had on the wall, saving his watches for last - he needed some way to pace himself.

Taking a moment to thank the gods for breaking his grandfather clock a few weeks earlier, he got up from the wooden table he was sitting at and padded over to the door, fumbling the handle.

Even as he pulled the door open, his mind was only half-focused on the overenthusiastic duelist who was being ushered inside.

If this was a game, then it was his move. And he'd better make the most of it, because he only got the one turn.

One turn, one gamble. May as well throw the dice.

* * *

**.**

**.**

**.**

**IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ**

There are three endings to this story! The happy ending, the sad ending, and the depressing/slightly horrifying ending. I need you to vote for which ending you'd like to see - but wait. There's a catch: _You don't get to know which ending you're asking for. _Mwahahaha.

This is how the voting will work:

- Pancake

- Waffle

- French Toast

Pick what food you'd prefer to be eating, right now, over the others, and tell me in a review.

(... I'm hungry.)

Each food has a certain ending tied to it, so that's how I will decide which to use. This way, you can't whine at me when I kill everyone brutally and mercilessly! Thank the Lord for democracy and unwitting pawns!

(Note: Depressing ending has seven chapters, not six.)

I hope you enjoyed, remember to vote, and remember to tell me how I did. All reviewers will get a special mention next chapter, so there's an incentive... yes?

~ Soul


	6. These Bleeding Palms of Mine

A/N: The ending that landed in first place was... _pancakes!_ I'm not going to tell you what ending it is, though. You're going to have to read the chapter! *cackles* /shot

Disclaimer: If I owned YuGiOh, nobody would have been allowed to vote! I would have just killed everyone tragically! Then for the series finale, I'd read all my hate mail and put a bullet through my head. Ta-da~!

Dedication: This entire fic is hereby dedicated to **DarkspiritYami**, who went through my_ entire list of fanfics _and reviewed _every single one_, regardless of whether or not she was interested in the fandom it was about. You should all clap for her. *sharpens knife, smiling*

Shoutouts!: My other reviewers deserve love too, amirite? **Ciloron**,** HarvestDragon**,** SerenePanic**, **Serendipital**, **fan of this fic**, **MyFalseTruth**, **Shadowclanwarrior**, **sassysisters9294**, **NightmareTroubador**, **ChicaOfDOOM**, **fee**, **ExplodiaTheUnescapable**, **Guest**, **Crazy-Queen-of-Games-in-Secret** - you've all motivated me to keep on writing this story, and indeed, keep writing on . You all win $50 all-purpose gift cards!

"Hey, this thing expired yesterday!"  
"SORRY I CAN'T HEAR YOU I'M TOO BUSY RUNNING AWAY."

* * *

.

Yugi stared, horrified, at Ryou's unresponsive form.

"... Ryou?"

No response.

"RYOU!"

"Ayeha!" Ryou jerked suddenly and spun to face Yugi, teacup slipping out of his hand and shattering on the floor. Shards flew every which way, the hot drink in question rolling across the floor.

The two occupants of the kitchen stared numbly at the mess that had defiled the white marble.

"Uhm..."

There was an awkward silence, and Ryou turned around again under the pretense of getting a kitchen towel.

"Are you okay?"

Ryou mocked him silently as he mopped up the mess, ignoring the twinges of guilt he felt.

Yugi had asked that question at _least _fifty times since he had first shown up. Ryou didn't have time for this. He needed to get started! Anxious, he checked his watch, cursing when he saw that their strained, idle chatter had gone on for an entire twenty-five minutes.

_Tick tock, yadonushi~_

Shut up!

_Heheh._

The frown that had creased said host's face intensified when Bakura failed to punish him. For what seemed like the billionth time, Ryou cursed the unfair stakes of this game. If the _human _loses, yeah, sure, something unimaginably horrible happens. If the _villain _loses, no biggie, try again tomorrow.

_Your sarcastic commentary amuses me. Shouldn't you be putting your plan into action?_

"Maybe I will," he muttered under his breath, ignoring the slightly scandalized look Yugi threw him as he misinterpreted the comment. Straightening up, he tugged at the back of his head, blushing.

"Oh no, no! I was just talking to myself! Heheh!"

_I should have become an actor, _Ryou thought, as Yugi's accusing gaze softened considerably.

"So..." Ryou said, continuing his act by shifting his weight anxiously. "Do you want to go up to my room? Like, and..." He searched for something that would keep the boy's attention. "Play a game of Duel Monsters?"

Even before the words had left his lips the other was nodding. "Of course," he said, the reply made even more childish with his barely restrained glee. He guestured for Ryou to leave the way, so the host - (Bakura sniggered at the double meaning) - in question lifted up the abandoned kitchen towel with one hand, scratchy white material bunched up in his palm. "Let me clean this up first," he said carefully. "You can go and set up, if you'd like."

A polite nod was thrown his way as the Duel King headed up the stairs.

Ryou checked to make sure that nobody was watching him before grabbing the handle of the nearest kitchen drawer. Sliding it open carefully, he picked up the sharpest knife in there, laying it on the counter in front of him as he slowly re-closed the drawer.

His heart slamming against his chest with a frightening inconsistancy, Ryou closed his trembling hands around the pitch-black hilt before checking his watch. Another five minutes had gone by, that left thirty.

The albino licked his suddenly dry lips as he started towards his innocent-looking stove, blade raised in one hand, only to stop when he caught sight of himself in the reflective glass.

_Deja-vu,_ he thought, but still, he paused and took in the sight.

The blade was twinkling in the reflection, a tight smile on the terrified projection's lips.

No matter how much he searched, Ryou could not find himself in that picture.

_Do you still doubt the madness?_

If Ryou wasn't so mentally unstable right now, he would have sworn he saw a few shadow tendrils snaking out from around his feet. But once he blinked, they were gone, and so he lunged forwards so as not to lose even more confidence in himself.

He still couldn't do it. He caught himself on the edge of the oven, knife pressed up against the green, blinking numbers. He had to be _quiet,_ and he had to be _fast_, before Yugi or whoever the hell it was now came back downstairs-

Two quick slices and the numbers stopped flashing.

_Like a heartbeat, _Bakura mused, the analogy most unwanted as Ryou slinked silently down the hallways, searching for his desktop.

"Ryou?"

If he had a dime for every time his lucky stars went on vacation, he'd probably be able to go with them!

"Are you coming?"

_Think fast_, Ryou thought, the uncomfortable dryness spreading down his throat. "Yeah, I just left my deck down in the basement... I'm going to go get it."

A pause, and Ryou prayed to whatever gods were listening that the excuse would be accepted and Yugi would not, not, _not _come back down.

"Okay."

Yes! Ryou walked faster now, hurrying into his living room and checking to see if it was off. It was.

Small mercies.

"Two down and two to - no, not now-!"

* * *

.

Sinking to his knees, Ryou clutched at his ears and shook as wild, manical laughter overtook his entire body, racking it with internal spasms.

_Ahahah! Ahaha! AHAHAHAHAHA!_

"Stoppit! Stoppit!" Ryou whined-slash-whimpered, falling onto his back and writhing for a few, incredibly precious and incredibly wasted moments as he waited for his command to be heeded.

By default, of course, not by any choice of the Spirit's.

Blood dribbled out of one corner of Ryou's mouth, perfect drops splattering next to his head and staining the carpet. Snarling out of pure exertion, Ryou pushed himself up back into a sitting position and clambered into a standing one. Game this might be to certain people, he was _not _going to lose, not when he had come so far. He could feel Bakura yanking at his concious almost desperately, and it was threatening to send him spiraling into the blackness.

So saying, he half-ran over to the clock on the wall and took it down, tearing open the compartment in the back and tossing the batteries haphazardly over his back before checking his watch once more. 1:33. Smirking as he stumble-rose once more, he locked eyes with the invisible ones of the clock on the opposite side of the room. This was it. This was _it._

Almost reverently, Ryou lifted the clock and turned it over, hands scrabbling at the metal in newfound excitement. He pulled open the hatch and popped the batteries out, watching with glee as they joined the others.

Slowly, they rolled, before sliding to a complete stop.

Bakura stopped pounding at the sides of his head.

"Did I... Did I win?" The sides of his face threatened to split with joy when Bakura gave no answer, instead choosing to curl into some corner of his mind, the perfect picture of defeat.

Well... That was easy. Too easy, in fact. The disturbing thought liquified his grin and it slipped off of his face. He had overlooked something. But what?

"Ryou! Hurry up!" A voice shouted from upstairs.

He'd have to figure it out upstairs, then.

"You don't look happy," Yugi commented as Ryou strode in.

Ryou waved his concern aside. "Only agitated, it took me a while to find my deck."

"Ah well, you have it now, so shall we start?"

"Of course."

* * *

Something was wrong. He could feel it.

* * *

It had started as a tingling in the back of his neck, an unwillingness to sit down, but had soon evolved into a full-time twitching fest. Yugi was eyeing him oddly, but Ryou couldn't seem to stop fidgeting. He had forgotten something.

"Excuse me," Ryou heard the words leaving his mouth but didn't quite feel as if he were the one speaking them, "But I think that perhaps I would calm down some if I went to get a drink of water."

"Okay. I'll wait."

Gods bless Yugi; he was so patient. And to hell with lying, that glass of water would be divine right now.

Heart in his mouth, the albino slowly padded downstairs, checking off his mental checklist as the stairs disappeared underneath him.

_That heart in your mouth is pulsing~_

Shaking his head rapidly to clear it of all distractions, he restarted his list and ticked each clock off of his fingers.

_Pusling, pulsing, pulsing,_

"Eh... Computer. Check."

one

"Stove. Check."

two

"Electric clocks. Check."

three

"Alarm. Check."

four

"Watches - watch_es_ -"

_Five._

Eyes bulging, Ryou turned and slammed up the stairs, not caring as they rattled frantically underneath him. He wasn't going to make it! HE WASN'T GOING TO MAKE IT HE HAD TO MAKE IT THIS WAS IMPOSSIBLE HE HAD -

"NonononononoNONONONO!" He screamed, tearing open the door to his room. Barely aware of the pain in his hands and the ghoulish expression frozen on his face, he darted past a shell-shocked Yugi and into the most secluded corner of his room. Breath rattling through his teeth in time with the mad laughter in his head -

_Mine or not mine?_

- he slapped his hands on either side of a flowery and antiquated jewlery box. The wooden, hand-carved lid all but exploded underneath his scrabbling fingers, which then wormed their way like maggots through dead flesh in search of - of

A white, ticking watch.

_White, ticking, flesh. _

_1:59_, it read, quite cheerily.

"YOU WON'T BEAT ME THAT EASILY, BAKURA!"

_When did your name become my own, little Ryou?_

Yugi had finally gotten over his secondhand terror. "Ryou! What - NO! DON'T!"

For Ryou had raised the smirking thing to his face and snapped it, quite brutally, in half, laughing like a man deranged.

He was still laughing when he sank to his knees, the blood from his hands dribbling down snow-white palms, an ocean of death in a teacup of sanity.

Yugi, who was now hyperventilating in his own way, had backed against the wall, speaking rapidly to himself in his own little way, pulling at the space where his Puzzle used to be.

Ryou had stopped laughing at that, waving a hand in front of his own item-less person.

For a single moment, doubt coiled in his belly like a snake. Surely Bakura couldn't actually be here. Maybe Ryou was merely stressed, depressed, traumatized, anything.

And then he fingered his bruised cheek, remembering, and watched the doubt fade.

He turned and surveyed the damage he had dealt, planning to use it as both a dose of reality and a distraction. There was a chipped door for sure, and a dented wall right behind that. And the - the jewlery box...

Splintered and snapped, all over the floor, fine gems and precious metal strewn about in a strangely depressing vignette.

It had used to belong to his mother...

Tears slicked his cheeks as much as the blood did, now, and he fell face-forwards, letting it all blur against the cream-colored mass that was his carpet.

"Nn..."

Bakura was silent, shocked himself, at once, at his last lifeline being discovered, or maybe..

Yugi had managed to push himself up and off the wall and had, albeit tentatively, taken a few steps towards his 'friend'.

"Ryou?"

"Hm?" Ryou sat up, eyes now still and as polite - _blank _- as ever. "I apologize."

Or maybe...

"Can we forget everything that happened here and start over? I promise that I am well now."

And he was. It was past 2:00 by now, had to be. Game over. He would live.

So when Yugi nodded, he was neither terribly surprised nor relieved. Instead, he let himself fall limp, back against the floor, left had falling over two dejected cards and the right massaging his forehead.

_or maybe im still counting_

He would forget the 'or maybe'. It didn't matter anymore. Time up, on everything.

"Talk to me."

Yugi looked at him curiously before settling back down in front of his duel mat. Obviously, he was going to choose Duel Monsters as his own distraction, win, leave, and then never come back to this mad, mad houes, full of broken wood and splintered metal and unfinished games.

_oh no. this game will finish... trust me..._

If Ryou had been able to hear the whispered, coiling words caress the insides of his mind, he would have snapped right then and there at the barely constrained, breathing rage that ghosted through every twist and turn of those blasted words.

"How about this? It's your move," the shorter male said quickly, lying for the sake of their meager conversation.

Ryou sat up, a weak smile bubbling up on his face. "It is? I forfeit, then," he said lightly. "You win..."

The faux-smile turned into a beaming, genuine one as he recalled how he had won at a game far more important than this, and a weight evaporated from his shoulders. He even laughed a little.

six

"Aw, don't be like that, Ryou!" Yugi shifted over so he was sitting next to Ryou, smiling a little now too.

seven

"I have to be! I can't win against you!"

Yugi gave Ryou a mock shove. "You have to at least try!"

"I _am _trying!"

They were both laughing loudly now, as if their subconsciences were somehow aware that a great tragedy had been averted. Ryou found himself warming up to Yugi by extension. He wasn't half bad, once you got past his guilt-inducing selflessness.

"Try harder, then!" Yugi called him back to the present with his mocking words, and the-

_Yes, why don't you try harder, yadonushi~?_

eight

Ryou froze.

His smile melted.

And he slowly - _ever so slowly - _twisted his body towards the now frightened Yugi.

_He's scared of you now, you know that? You and your insanity._

"Please tell me that this is some kind of joke."

Wet, desperate, barely whispered words.

nine

"W-what is a joke, Ryou? I-I don't know what you're talking about..."

The words were dry on his lips and crumbled as the fell, blowing away like sand in the deserts his Other Self knew so well.

_Ten._

The alarm on his bedside table fell forwards of its own accord, and Ryou's mouth fell open in a horrified 'O' of understanding - one that matched the two blood-red zeros now reflected back at him.

12:00

1/2:00

_(1)/2:00._

_2:00._

And then everything was black.

* * *

_._

_heehee_

_._

* * *

.

.

.

*awkwardly searches for way to end the story without killing mood*  
*can't find one*

/shotandbrickedsoflippinghard 

A/N: Well - I'm really sad about closing this story, but I suppose it has to end somewhere... Thanks for sticking with me for so long! This was super fun to write and I hope you all felt that my ending was worth waiting for. Drop a review, please! I don't care if it's ten seconds or ten years after I posted this, reviews will all get replied to with such exuberance that I think you may melt from the sheer power of my squealing.

Once again, thank you for picking Soul Storylines! Drop your reviews in the box over there *points directly below these words*, and do watch your step on the way out!

"Wait... why...?"  
"Bakura's been hiding under the exit staircase lately... something about angry Tendershipping fangirls..."

* * *

~FIN~


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